


Thin Sheet of Glass

by Duchesse



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Comfort, F/M, Fluff, M/M, Pining, Reader-Insert, Reader-Interactive, Romance, Touch-Starved, gender-neutral
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-11-09 04:16:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 976
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17994683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Duchesse/pseuds/Duchesse
Summary: He craved your touch, and though the mirror separated you both, he thought he could still feel your warmth.[Aaravos/Reader]





	Thin Sheet of Glass

**Author's Note:**

> still have a problem. thanks. ppl on tumblr want touch-starved, cuddle aaravos and i'm here for it.

There was a price to pay for the gifts they received. His memory had withered during his imprisonment within that mirror, that solitary world to which he was master. Names danced uncomfortably on the tip of his tongue like a bitter taste; faces were a blur, a flash like the world passing whilst mounted a moon phoenix. 

He once thought it a pity, after the first several centuries, that those whom once held some significance to him felt as memorable as disposable figures in a novel, the trivial beings in history. In his loneliness, unseen to the world though able to see into it, he found some solace in the avast knowledge books.

Yes, sometimes, he thought, the things he would trade for a conversation, no matter how inconsequential it might be. To see another face; a smile, a frown, the wrinkle in a brow, the glimmer of hair beneath candlelight. To hear a voice; guttural, baritone, soft, mellifluous- even a boisterous song.

Perhaps what he craved most was a touch. Delicate or strong, it made no difference to him. He longed for warmth beyond singe of fire; what did skin feel like again? 

Oh, how he burned for it. His own flesh ablaze, his mind scouring the very recesses of his mind to recall a handshake, an embrace.

“Tell me again,” he spoke quietly into the night, through the caterpillar that molded to the curvature of your ear. You sat on the cold stone near the mirror, skin glowing beneath the demure sway of candlelight. And, he sat with you, there against the mirror on his side, the spacious room only alight by the fireplace and glimmer of his starlit body. He wanted to feel as though he was there with you, near you. “Will you tell me again? That feeling of an embrace?”

“I don’t know why you keep asking, seriously. It’s a bad explanation, I can’t even speak my native tongue right.” You replied with a sigh, tightening your arms against your chest as your body shook with the chill of your cheek touching the mirror. “Can I be bold with an assumption?”

He felt his eyes drawn to your face against the glass, untouchable even as he stroked it with a bent finger. “Be my guest.”

“Do you imagine it’s us when I tell you? Because I do.” You said, taking care not to jostle the mirror as you shifted against it. “You’re so tall, I’m trying to think about our heights and where I’d come to if- uh, y’know, we did.”

“If it brings you any joy for me to say ‘yes’, then yes.” He continued to brush the glass, unfettered by your words. “Also, you would reach my waist.”

At that, you jolted away from the mirror, face soured. “Liar! I’m taller than that- I think. Maybe. Wait, let me- yeah. No, I’m taller than that. Probably.”

His lips raised crookedly, throat rumbling as he smothered a laugh. “I never lie.”

Oh, how delightfully unconventional you were for a human. While he could no longer claim to recall the names or faces attached to the ancestors of humanity, their personalities did remain with them- and the contributions they made to your race. Your personality was unexpectedly fresh, yet simultaneously bewildering. 

An enthralling paradox.

There were days in your company where he could understand your prestige, your title, and the life you lived which led you to be who you are now. And in other ways, he wasn’t sure he could truly fathom how fate led you tied to Viren. Beyond even that, in ways he would never acknowledge aloud, he was envious of that inescapable bond that you shared with your superior.

He could speak with you freely, walk at your side through all seasons- he could touch you, feel you. All things he could only envision, the stuff that ensnared him in his dreams.

“Tell me once more,” he closed his eyes, hair feathering across his shoulder as he tilted his head. The glass was cold against his fingertips, yet for a moment he had thought it warm where your cheek had been. “Describe that feeling to me. I want to remember.”

Your shoulders sagged forward as you deflated, expression easing when you sat back in front of the mirror. “A hug? Man, I don’t know. Okay, so, like, imagine a fire. But, imagine a fire that’s just warm- no intense heat, no burns, no flames. Got it? Right. So, imagine that but more concentrated, in the form of another person. You mostly feel it against your chest, or, like, in your shoulders or something.”

“Please, do continue.” He said.

“It just depends. If it’s just a friendly hug, you just feel their presence left behind but it goes away. If it’s an embrace from someone you really care about.” You paused, eyes rolling heavenward as you twisted your fingers together. “Well, that’s a bit harder. They have such a presence that it stays there, it lingers for a while. Because where they touch you will feel heavy, or it’ll be warm. And you’ll remember the way it felt- like where their arms were, or if their chin was on your shoulder, or if their cheeks felt warm on yours, or their heads touched your chest.”

It still eluded him, that encompassing feeling that you struggled to describe. He could not recall the last touch he shared with another, let alone something as vulnerable as an embrace. The darkness behind his eyes parted, and he thought he could see you, he could see himself, and your arms wound tightly against one another.

For a moment, he thought he could feel your warmth and your head resting against him. And though he saw you when he opened his eyes, he was still cold.

“Soon enough, I will come to you.”

**Author's Note:**

> if u want actual hug fic, pls tell me.


End file.
